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Name: Garrett Alexander Bardsley
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 20, 2004
Location Last Seen: Cuberwant Lake, Summit County, Utah
Date of Birth: July 24, 1992
Age: 12 years old
Race: White/Caucasian
Gender: Male
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 105 lbs.
Hair Color: Light Brown, shoulder length
Eye Color: Hazel
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Unknown. He was no longer wearing braces as shown in the above photo but he has a small gap between his front teeth.
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: A hooded black sweatshirt, t-shirt, reversible black and red sweatpants, and white Converse tennis shoes.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: a short, black and chrome ice fishing pole
At around 8:00 a.m. on August 20, 2004, Bardsley and his father got up early while on a Boy Scout camping trip. They headed down to a nearby lake called Cuberant 1 in the Uinta Mountains in Utah for some fishing. The father and son lived in Elk Ridge. They were camping with eighteen scouts and six or seven adults beginning on Thursday, August 19, 2004, and had planned to leave on Saturday.
Bardsley had managed to get his pants, socks, and shoes soaked with water while fishing and he told his father that he wanted to walk back to camp to change as he felt uncomfortable in wet clothes. He told his father he wouldn't be long and he would be back to the lake soon to try and land a fish for breakfast. The rest of their Boy Scout group was camped just up the hill at the Cuberant #4 campsite, 150-250 feet away. The campsite was on a well-established path that connected with a road another quarter-mile away.
Bardsley and his father had walked the trail several times before, so his father let him head back to the campsite alone while he continued to fish. He kept his eyes on his son as his son walked around the lake. He even shouted directions, reminding his son which path would lead him straight back to camp. After about twenty minutes or so, his father wondered what was taking him so long to get back and he decided to return to the campsite to see what had happened. On his way back, he thought he head someone call "dad", but after stopping and looking around, he didn't notice anyone and continued on. When he arrived at the campsite, his son was nowhere to be found and none of the other Boy Scouts had seen him at the camp.
A huge search of the area with hundreds of official and unofficial searchers turned up nothing except for one of Bardsley's Nike socks a half mile away from the spot where he disappeared in a granite boulder field. The sock appeared to be taken off of a wet foot and wadded up. Because of where the sock was found, the County Sheriff said it would be in line with the assumption that Bardsley had sought shelter in the cold weather, maybe by going into the boulder field for a crevasse or outcropping. The mountainous terrain meant that the temperature dropped to around eighteen degrees the night he disappeared. Bardsley had no provisions or backpack. The ice fishing pole he was carrying when he left his father was never located.
The official search for Bardsley was called after nine days. A three-mile radius in the rugged mountains from where he was last seen was thoroughly searched. After the official search was over, the family and many dedicated friends and volunteers continued search efforts, returning at least two or three times each week until October. Further searches happened after the winter of 2004 but turned up nothing.
Agency Name: Summit County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Lieutenant Alan Siddoway
Agency Phone Number: (435) 615-3518
Agency Phone Number: (435) 615-3600
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 04L12342
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: 5824
NCMEC Case Number: 995300
NamUs
NCMEC
The Daily Universe
Strange Outdoors
Utah Department of Public Safety
Added: 12/7/22 ; Last Updated: 4/2/23
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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